Route 28

6

nick robinson is neil

With my head rested in my heads and my phone battery drained to 20% from boredom, I decided to actually watch the guys practice. I didn't want to awkwardly sit on the bleachers by myself and watch them throw a football and tackle, but Colt informed me that if I go in right now, I don't have to pay $5, and I only like to spend my money on food and gas, so I sadly complied.

The boys took a five minute break, and I slyly watched Neil. When Colt and I finally pulled into the school, he jumped out of the car, while I was still driving (he's a dumbass), and Neil was leaning against the side of the building waiting for him. He yelled at him for being stupid, saying he could've hurt himself. Then, the best part, he waved me at me and said, "Hey Autumn", with the cutest smile. Thinking about him saying my name over and over, made me giggle to myself quietly.

I looked at my phone again, and it dropped another 3%. I shut it off and wished I could go to my car to charge my phone, but once I leave I can't come back in without paying again. I leaned back against the steps and watched Colt laugh loudly with Chris. In a split second, Colt spun around and scoffed at me to see I was not paying attention.

"Autumn! Watch!" he called, drawing the attention of some of his teammates.

My cheeks turned bright red, and I sunk down on the seat. I wished I had my hoodie to hide myself with. There was only 15 minutes of their practice left before they head back to the locker room, so I decided I'd spare my attention to Colt.

He called the play and before he could throw the football he was tackled to the ground. My eye brows rose at his horrible mistake. I thought he was supposed to be good? The coach had him redo the play, and this time Colt had the chance to throw the ball, but it was such an awful throw. The ball did not fly spiral and flew out of bounds. Colt was clearly anger has he slapped his helmet. The coach scolded at him, and so did his team mates. Jay, especially, was trying to give tips, but Colt wasn't having it.

The coach had them try the play one more time, and this time Colt's throw was in bounds, but it was still sloppy. Luckily, Neil managed to catch the ball and ran past all the defenders and ran pretty close to the touchdown zone before he got tackled. The coach still criticized Colt, but gave Neil a nice pat on the back.

I was confused to why Colt did not play well, but I guess you can't be perfect all the time. Neil, on the other hand, seems to be just as much of a star as Colt. The coach dismissed the team to the locker room to give them a pre-game speech. I walked down the bleachers to greet Colt who was calling me over.

"You sucked," I said bluntly. I didn't mean to sound rude, but it just came out like that.

"I know," he muttered and pushed his sweaty hair back.

We kind of just stood there silently, with just the fence between us. I wanted to wish him good luck before his game, but before I could, he called a girl over. I turned around the see who the girl was, and it was the wasted drunk who throws water bottles at every game. I stood up straight and watched the two flirt in front of me. I didn't know whether to wait for Colt to finish, or just leave, so I did the latter.

"Wait!" Colt called before I could walk up the steps. For some reason my heart skipped a beat, and I was partially happy that he chose me rather than Hailey, who goes by Holly for some reason.

"Holly, do you mind doing her face paint and have her sit with you during the games. She doesn't go to many games?" he asked and winked.

"Sure, what's her name?" Holly asked Colt instead of me.

The worse part is, he didn't even bother answering her, he just shrugged and ran to catch up with his teammates. I bet Neil would've told her my name.

"Autumn," I retorted, "My name is Autumn."